The CSIRO will axe up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges. The organisation says funding has failed to keep pace with the rising costs of modern research.
00:00It's responsible for cutting-edge research, but today the CSIRO is staring down major cuts of its own.
00:10This is going to be catastrophic for the future of Australian science.
00:15The organisation will slash between 300 and 350 full-time equivalent research roles
00:21in what it's called a difficult but necessary decision to safeguard the National Science Agency.
00:27This is an important part of the CSIRO making sure that it is fit for purpose and it's got a modern forward-looking science agenda.
00:34The CSIRO says its funding is falling short. It's already axed more than 800 jobs in the past 18 months.
00:42That takes the job losses to more than that happened under the Abbott government, which is pretty extraordinary.
00:49An internal 18-month review of the agency's research portfolio has found it needs a sharper focus on areas like climate resilience, clean energy, biosecurity and artificial intelligence.
01:02Other research will be deprioritised.
01:05In some areas, for example in nutrition, where that work has matured or has been undertaken by other scientific and research organisations in our university community, the CSIRO has resolved to pull back from some of that activity.
01:20You can't say that you're serious about tackling the big challenges we face and then cut science funding.
01:26The CSIRO employs almost 6,000 people at sites across Australia. It's not yet clear where the job losses will be most felt.
01:35CSIRO is the public science institute that bought us Wi-Fi, Aeroguard, the banknote. The fact that we now have a Labor government attacking it more than the Tony Abbott government did is an embarrassment to Australia.
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